The thought struck me as I entered a medical clinic this weekend, praying for a doctor to cure me after a period of prolonged illness. The woman took down my name, age and insurance information, and suddenly it occurred to me — I am still on my parents’ insurance plan.
How long do I get to stay on their plan? As a 20-year-old, when does it become awkward to have your parents still covering your health insurance? What kind of health insurance do I even need?
We’ve all heard the various debates about ObamaCare, Medicare, this-care and that-care, but for myself at least, the topic remains a somewhat gray area looming in the back of my mind. I’ve always considered learning how to obtain your own health insurance one of those scary tasks you only have to worry about once you officially become an ‘adult.’
This, of course, inspired further scary thoughts. What other tasks have I taken for granted that I will eventually be expected to understand? While life in college forces people to take care of themselves and achieve new levels of maturity, there remains a cushion for many students. Everyone experiences one or two of those “real world” moments in which they feel completely unprepared.
How do I file taxes? I’ve seen the confusing paperwork, and I’ve heard of services like TurboTax, but the true mysteries behind the process still evade me. And on a similar note, what is my credit score? Someday I’ll have to take out a loan and have good credit. That requires both knowing how to apply for a loan, as well as knowing what good credit is. Suddenly a pounding headache was beginning to form behind my eyes.
Needless to say, as thoughts began to pile up and overwhelm me, my trip to the doctor became increasingly unpleasant.
Sometimes it seems certain people magically just know things when they reach a certain age, as if after college a fairy godmother arrives to program their brains with the necessary information for surviving in the real world. If this fairy does exist, she has been suspiciously absent in my life thus far.
Thankfully, most of the time becoming an adult is a gradual occurrence. After a few deep breaths and a moment of thought, I remembered we all belong to a community. We are not alone and graduation won’t be strictly sink or swim. Our families, friends and classmates will be there to hold those cushions in some facets of life until we feel confident enough to stand on our own.
We don’t have to master every skill at once; step by step, we will learn things from the people around us as they become necessary. My mother still cooks dinner when I come home during breaks, and when I live on my own I know I can call her when recipes seem like they’re written in Chinese. And when I’m sweating over those complicated forms in a few years, I know I can talk to friends or classmates who are in the same situation and rely on their insights and advice. In turn, maybe someday I will be a cushion for a friend or a younger sibling to help them when the world seems all too confusing.
Becoming an adult doesn’t have to be a phase of stress and anxiety, but rather it is a time of practical learning. It still seems at times like the real world is a scary place — but only if you face it alone. And if all else fails, you’ve exhausted all your advice and the question seems impossible, there’s always Google.
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